If you’ve gotten used to receiving real-time updates from the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Quora in your Google search results, you’re going to have to get used to things being the way they were before Google Realtime, at least for now.
The service, which began running in December 2009 has been shut down, following the expiry of Google’s deal with Twitter. Search blog, Search Engine Land, was among the first to discover that the service had been shut down.
None of this, however, explains why Google did not simply renew their arrangement with Twitter. It is interesting to...

We know now that the Myspace empire has gone bad. It hasn’t busted, but it’s come damn close. And if history teaches us any lessons about empires, it is that they are neither immutable nor invulnerable.
In figures alone, Myspace acutely instantiates this truth: in 2007, it was valued as high as US$12-billion; today, it’s just been sold to Specific Media for US$35-million. Ouch.
Back in 2005, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp acquired Myspace for US$580-million. At the time, Myspace’s ascent on the social media-sharing platform seemed unmatchable. Facebook was still in its infancy, and Twitter was just a bricolage...

My experience with Google+ began last Thursday evening when I took to Facebook and Twitter and posted the following:
Google+ looks pretty cool. Keen to give it a try... #hinthint #searchingforinvites #rememberyourgoodfriendadam
I was pretty shocked to find that, within a few minutes, I had gotten a reply from somebody who knew somebody…and by the time I woke up on Friday morning, I had a Google+ invite waiting for me in my inbox.
For those of you who don’t know, Google+ is Google’s latest attempt at cracking social -- or rather, an attempt to get people to spend more time on Google...

Starting a new business is a bit like caring for your first born. Now while you don’t need to write a marketing strategy for your first born; you do need to ensure that you are giving your business the best chance of success. That is done by ensuring that you are placing it in front of people looking for your product.
When you are devising your business strategy; planning the supply chain; product specifications; looking at costing models and ultimately picturing your retirement on a Caribbean beach; don’t forget your marketing strategy – specifically your internet marketing strategy.
The reason...

Fed up with being unable to receive funds via Visa and Mastercard, on Monday Wikileaks issued an ultimatum. According to the self described, "not-for-profit media organisation," should the two financial giants not lift their ban on donations to Wikileaks, they will be laying a complaint with The European Commission.
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union entrusted with proposing and enforcing European Union legislation.
Svein Andri Sveinsson, the controversial site’s Iceland based lawyer is reported to have said that should the ban not be lifted by Thursday, Wikileaks would lay it’s complaint against the two companies....

The US Secret Service said Monday it was investigating the apparent hacking of an official Twitter account operated by Fox News that posted a series of tweets claiming President Barack Obama had been assassinated.
The Twitter feed for the television network's political news -- @FoxNewspolitics -- sent out a series of "malicious and false tweets," starting around 2:00 am, Fox News confirmed in a statement. The posts have since been taken down.
According to the BBC, a group calling themselves "The Script Kiddies" claimed responsibility for the attack. This evidence is backed up by the fact that tweets from a user...

Google has just announced the launch of Google Engage, a new partner programme to support South African web professionals who provide services to SMBs.
The Google Engage programme offers the training and support that small businesses need to help their clients benefit from Google AdWords and other Google products.
Advertising agencies, webmasters, search engine marketers, or anyone who provides web services to South African small and medium businesses can now apply to join the programme and receive support from Google. Engage members will receive free access to educational resources, online training material and promotional vouchers to help customers get started with...

Chinese web giant Baidu said on Monday it had reached an agreement with American software giant Microsoft to provide English-language results generated by the US software giant's Bing search engine.
Some English search requests from Baidu users will be automatically directed to Bing and its results will be displayed in pages in Baidu's search engine, the Chinese company said in a statement.
"The cooperation between Baidu and Bing will bring into play technological advantages of both parties and jointly provide best search experience for users who need to search in English," Baidu senior executive Zhang Dongchen said.
The move will also help...

Internet censorship is rife and seems to be getting worse. This month, Reporters Without Borders ran an article about bloggers and human rights activists in Bahrain who have been given life-sentences for expressing their opinions online. This year alone, the site reports that 121 'netizens' have already been imprisoned around the world for reasons directly relating to their writing activities online.
The countries where this is most prevalent are China, Vietnam and Arab countries including Iran, Syria, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. As horrifying as it is, it would be wrong to say that the incredible sentences being imposed on bloggers...

It seems that every article you read about some new web development contains at least four references to cloud technology. Everyone is hopping on the bandwagon -- even Apple is following the herd with their move from MobileMe to iCloud. Clearly, cloud-based computing systems are here to stay.
Just as the world moved from mainframe architecture to personal computing, it seems that this is the start of a shift towards offloading certain aspects of personal computing to the cloud. So what’s next? And since we’re obsessing over ridiculously overused buzzwords, what will become of this paradigm shift?
Well, let’s start...

Listening to music on vinyl – Gearburn is all about the latest and greatest – but to be sure we’re not missing the gorgeous old forest for the shiny new trees, we also look backwards to see if we’re moving forward. LP vinyl records were what your parents listened to, not because they had greater presence and deeper, fuller soundstage with darker blacks between the notes, but because that’s pretty much all they had.
Now we have mp3 players and stream music from our phones to our bathroom sinks wirelessly, and the only people that still listen to vinyl...

Go Daddy, the world's largest registrar of Internet domain names, said on Friday that it was selling a stake to three major investment firms including private-equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR).
"The Go Daddy Group, Inc. ... has signed a definitive agreement to receive a strategic investment and enter into a partnership with KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures," the company said in a statement.
Go Daddy CEO and founder, Bob Parsons said the company had always intended to make such a move, "when the right deal with the right partners could help us do the right thing for...

Police have arrested 36 people in southeast China following an investigation into fraud on e-commerce site Alibaba.com and other websites that duped buyers out of more than US$6 million.
Alizila.com, Alibaba's corporate news website, reported earlier this week the suspects were detained in Fujian province's Putian city in April. John Spelich, the firm's spokesman, confirmed the report on Saturday.
The people arrested allegedly operated a criminal gang that used fake IDs to open more than 100 "Gold Supplier" accounts on Alibaba.com. This designation is given to those certified as highly trusted suppliers by the firm.
This allowed the suspects to...

A small security company called CertiVox has launched a free text encryption service call PrivateSky for use in browser-based messaging services. Despite the manifold risks, many Internet users still pass private, sensitive or embarrasing information over Facebook posts, Gmail accounts, blogs and other insecure public Web services. PrivateSky encrypts text, allowing only a trusted recipient to read it.
It takes the form of a one-click encryption plug-in for Internet Explorer (only, at this point) that turns any text entered into a message box into gobbledegook (AES 192-bit with single-key if you want the gory details). The recipient can decypt it...

Google has entered preliminary talks to acquire the online video site Hulu, the LA Times reported on its website Friday, citing anonymous "sources familiar with the discussions".
Hulu's owners have met with Google and other prospective buyers including Yahoo! and Microsoft, the newspaper reported.
The site, which broadcasts television shows through on-demand streaming, is owned by a trio of traditional media giants -- Disney, NBC Universal and News Corp. -- and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.
Founded in 2008, Hulu is only available in the United States. It lets users watch a selection of television shows for free with...